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The Center’s journal, Railroad Heritage®, and other publications fill a unique niche: using photographs and art to inform the public and rail enthusiasts alike about the influence of railroads on economic growth and development, popular culture, and the lives of the hundreds of thousands of men and women who built and maintain North America’s railroads. Excellent images and highly researched and thoughtful writing characterize our publications. We launched Railroad Heritage in 2000 and now publish four issues annually, which our members receive for free as a benefit of membership. You can purchase previous issues here or by printing and mailing the order form (pdf).

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Significant Images of Railroading, edited by Center president Scott Lothes, is a 78-page, softcover book that, for the first time, presents an overview of the Center’s photography collections. Of the nearly 200,000 images in those collections, ninety-three are presented here in vibrant color and rich, quadtone black-and-white. Those images come from ten principal collections, including the work of Wallace W. Abbey, whose circa 1950 photograph from Chicago Union Station is featured on the cover. A preservation award from Trains magazine helped fund processing of the Abbey Collection. Other major holdings include the works of Fred M. Springer, John F. Bjorklund, and Ted Rose. Biographical sketches written by Jack Holzhueter introduce each section. Archives manager Jordan Radke completed processing work on many of the collections; archival partner Lake Forest College also contributed greatly to the processing work. In addition to the Trains award, funding for this special publication came from Fred and Dale Springer, the Candelaria Fund, and Bon and Holly French.

200-page, hardbound, 11- by 11.5-inch book published by the Center. Printed in the US, it features 108 photographs, including seventy-three of Jack Delano’s 1942–1943 views of Chicagoland railroads and their workers, reproduced in full color with rich quadtones for the black-and-whites. Contempoary photographs by Jack’s son, Pablo Delano, and the Center’s John Gruber and Scott Lothes complement the catalog. There are essays by Pablo Delano, Gruber, and University of Texas professor Jeremi Suri, a leading public historian. Biographical essays prepared by Center editorial consultant Jack Holzhueter as well as Gruber and Lothes tell the life stories of the forty-nine railroaders.

$60, $50 for members of the Center, $5 s/h, 200 pages, hardbound, color and b/w

The Summer 2015 issue of Railroad Heritage recaps Conversations 2015 and includes three feature articles. Inspired by O. Winston Link and others, Architect David Kahler looks for art in the everyday scenes along Norfolk Southern’s Pocahontas District in West Virginia in the 1990s. Frank Barry recounts his independent travels in Mexico to photograph steam locomotives in the early 1960s. Jordan Radke, the Center’s archives manager, profiles watercolor artist Margaret Mailly (1930–2014), who prolifically painted railroads and railroaders during the last two decades of her life.

Eric Williams, Millburn, New Jersey, took first prize in the 2014 photography awards with this dramatic view of Junction 18 on Chicago’s ‘L.’ The theme was “lasting impressions.”

“Be creative” is the theme for the Center’s 2015 John E. Gruber Creative Photography Awards Program. Send us your best, your most creative railroad photographs—views you would be proud to share on the Internet or with friends. Stop, look, and listen, observe what is happening around you—then put your creativity to work. Create your photographs. We are not placing restrictions on your creativity and your opportunities are not limited by specific themes, but photographs must have been taken after December 31, 2010. Digital manipulation is perfectly acceptable so long as it is stated. Remember that interpretations of railroads can be subtle. Don’t ignore the personal side of railroading. Look to the future. What may have seemed creative in the past may be passé today.

For Scans
If you are sending scans, please scan 35mm slides or negatives with a resolution of at least 2,000 pixels per inch (ppi); medium format negatives or transparencies at 1,200 ppi or higher; large format negatives or transparencies at 600 ppi or higher; 8×10 prints at 300 ppi or higher.

Copyrights
Entrants retain full copyrights to their photographs. By submitting an entry, you grant the Center one-time use for your work in our journal, Railroad Heritage, on our website, and/or on any of our social media platforms. You also grant Railfan & Railroad magazine one-time use for your work in print and on their website.